Homeless in Vancouver: Parking is a chronic pain in the lane

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      The aging Vancouver neighbourhood of Fairview is suffering from narrowing of the arteries.

      The back alleys, a vital part of the neighborhood’s circulatory system, are clogging with parked cars even as more and more drivers try to use them to escape congestion on the main roads.

      The above photo from 8:30 a.m. shows an increasingly common kind of bottleneck.

      Amazing how much trouble one SUV can cause

      The driver of the red car on our left has a permit to park where he just has. The silver Mercedes-Benz on our right is parked illegally. The space between them is too narrow for another car to squeeze through.

      The red car wasn’t moving. And the driver of the red car, while pissed about the Mercedes Benz, told me he wasn’t going to call city traffic enforcement to complain (scaredy cat!).

      Until the Mercedes-Benz moved, no vehicle wider than a shopping cart would be getting through the gap; no garbage trucks, service trucks, or residents on their way to work or through to where they lived.

      What a pain.

      The cure may be worse than the disease

      To get rid of Fairview’s bad cholesterol is the only solution to increase the good HDL (High Density Living) cholesterol?  That is to say, replace the three-storey apartment buildings with new pedestal towers, each with its own underground parking?

      What’s that…the residents should sell their cars in favour of using transit and riding bicycles?

      For that to wor,k wouldn’t we need a mayor and council in favour of some kind of east-west SkyTrain or light rail solution on the south side of False Creek—and even more bicycle routes?

      Stanley Q. Woodvine is a homeless resident of Vancouver who has worked in the past as an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer.

      Comments

      1 Comments

      tow it

      May 24, 2014 at 2:04pm

      we need more tow trucks and higher fines for illegal vehicle activities

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